Embed a Branded Logo Design Inside your Custom QR Code: Photoshop

QR Codes or the Quick Response Codes are the magical bar codes which can be read by smart phones. But…

QR Codes or the Quick Response Codes are the magical bar codes which can be read by smart phones. But these codes are often criticized because of their black and white appearance like a checker box. Fortunately these codes can be revamped while retaining their ability to get scanned. QR codes have enough potential from a designers point of view while designing a code to boost the value of you of your brand and make it appealing to the customers.

Quick Response Code was developed by Denso Wave, a subsidiary of Toyota in the year 1994 to help the car makers in managing different types of auto parts. These codes were developed to produce the fast visual classification of the components as well as for managing the additional information.

Quick Response Codes, these days, have become one of the most useful tools for transmitting information to the cell phone users because of its following advantages:

Minimum requirement of hardware and software to read a QR Code

Fast reading quality

Capability of storing a wide range of information from text to numeric to binary data

Here in this article we will discuss the way of changing a Quick Response Code and insert a custom logo design into it. This branded logo will be shown correctly in spite of this modification.

The QR Code which symbolizes a two dimensional bar code was earlier used by the organizations. But now a day it is extensively used for encoding and transmitting small information such as URLs, business cards, contact details, phone numbers, GPS locations, meetings and mails etc. This transmission procedure is performed visually and only the mobiles which are inbuilt with code reader software and camera can be a receiver.

Choose the QR Code type: While choosing you may find various types of QR Codes categorized by their number of columns and rows which are called modules. Nearly 40 versions are there containing modules from 21 to 177. Higher versions of QR Codes have more storage capacity but you may face problem while reading as it has higher density of points in the images. Therefore while choosing a QR Code keep the following things in mind:

Size of the message

Readers specifications

Error corrections

Number of modules present in the codes

It is suggested that version 6 can be enough for business cards, advertising and marketing campaign.

If you are a tablet or smart phone user you can easily read it by using QR code reader software while Nokia mobile users can download the software if they do not have QR code reader software inbuilt. Apart from these, people can also use internet QR readers which are offered for free by a number of websites.

How to Insert Logo Design into the QR Code

Though the Quick Response Code appears in a simple black and white image, they can be completely redesigned by inserting custom logo design while keeping their originality intact.

Follow the steps to insert logo design:

1st Step: First a version 6 Quick Response Code should be generated with a H error correction level (error level should be maximum 30%) for a selected URL. You may use a generator downloaded from the internet. The generator should permit you to edit the following:

Size of the QR Code image

QR Code error correction level i.e. up to 30%

Version of the QR Code i.e. version 6

URL address

2nd Step: Open Photoshop and open a new document with the following settings:

Background Contents: White

Height: 300px

Width: 300px

Color Mode: RGB

3rd Step: Add the Quick Response Code image using file -> place from Photoshop menu. Now the image is a smart object and is on a new layer. To identify the layer give it a name.

You can also resize the image if needed by selecting the layer and choosing Edit -> Transform -> Scale -> or Edit -> Free Transform (Ctrl + T)

4th Step: You can edit the QR code image from the layer by using Layer -> Rasterize -> Layer or you may right click on Layer and select Layer Rasterize.

5th Step: Here you can edit the image according to your choice

6th Step: Here you can generate QR Code with rounded corners by selecting the Layer and pressing the Ctrl and left click on the icon of the layer at the same time.

7th Step: You can apply Pattern Overlay, Gradient Overlay on the Rounded Layer if you do not perform the 6th step

8th Step: You can save your precious time by defining a safe work part that can be used as a reference. For example, if the QR Code generated with the size of 250X250 the safe work area can be 100px X 100px square and 200px X 50px rectangular and 100px radius circle.

9th Step: To highlight the embedded logo design 4-5 pixels white color from the background can be applied on the layer.

Adding Logo Inside QR Codes Using Photoshop: Video Tutorial

The above video tutorial will show you how you can add your very own logo into a QR code in Photoshop CS5.

About the Author : The above article is written by Sara Parker who is an associate writer from Logo Design Team. She is an expertise writer for writing articles related to Logo Design, custom logo design and anything that is related to this niche. Her latest work can be fine here : Animated Logo Design.